Russia's space agency strikes multiple deals at Le Bourget

LE BOURGET (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s space agency signed three contracts, five agreements, and a memorandum at an international air show in France, the agency’s head said Wednesday.

The 47th International Air Show in Le Bourget near Paris on June 18-24 hosts 2,000 companies from 42 countries, including 60 Russian defense contractors, and is expected to yield a series of lucrative deals between Russian and foreign, mostly European, firms.

Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), told RIA Novosti: “The agency has signed a number of agreements and important contracts. We are satisfied with our cooperation with the European Space Agency [ESA], NASA, Italian, and Japanese partners.”

CONTRACTS

Russia’s space agency and French satellite launch firm Arianespace signed a contract for the first four launches of European satellites from the Kourou space center in French Guiana. The satellites are to be put into orbit by the Russian booster rocket Soyuz ST.

European Space Agency President Jean Jacques Dordain said that the first launch of a European satellite aboard a Soyuz ST is planned to take place before March 2009.

The Lavochkin design bureau signed a contract with German aerospace engineering company Kayser-Threde to use Russian Fregat boosters for technical and scientific experiments.

AGREEMENTS

“Roscosmos signed an agreement with the Italian space agency [ASI] on joint research on board Russian Foton-M and Bion-M research spacecraft,” Perminov said.

In addition, the two agencies signed an executive agreement on cooperation in the development of a third stage booster for a modernized version of the European launch vehicle Vega.

Perminov said the agency also concluded a cooperation agreement with the Japanese space agency (JAXA) to install a Russian multi-purpose gamma-ray spectrometer on board BepiColombo spacecraft, scheduled for launch with the use of Soyuz ST carrier rocket in 2011.

BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency and JAXA to the planet Mercury.

Roscosmos also signed an agreement with NASA on joint scientific research under the Mars orbit exploration program and a memorandum on understanding with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) on testing prototypes of space equipment in orbit.